Despite the ongoing and growing demand for patient mobility, load capacity, multi-functionality, safety and stability, the basic IV pole design has not significantly changed since the 1920's. Thus, it is not surprising that the basic IV pole design is obsolete and represents, at best, a nuisance and in many situations a hazard for both patients and patient caregivers, including hospital personal. Not uncommonly, the basic IV pole is prone to tipping, especially on carpets and when encountering bumps or any surface transitions (e.g., elevator, carpet/hard surface transition, doorways, etc.).
As the complexity of medical care has increased, so has the number, amount and weight of medical materials needed to be connected to a patient, including a patient that is to ambulate. In fact, depending on the medical intervention, a single patient may have a dozen or more infusions proceeding simultaneously. This makes the conventional IV pole rather top heavy and prone to tipping in response to the slightest perturbation. Accordingly, IV poles are involved in a significant percentage of injury-causing falls in hospital settings. Each year, it is estimated that about 1 million or more patients will fall in acute care settings and that about 30% will incur moderate-severe injuries, burdening the healthcare system with a significant additional cost. This problem is further exacerbated as Medicare no longer pays extra for specific conditions that could be avoided if the hospital followed proven preventive procedures or common-sense precautions. Medicare no longer pays hospitals for extra care given to patients injured by falls in the hospital and many private insurers are following Medicare's lead.
There is, therefore, a need in the art for superior alternatives to conventional intra-venous (IV) poles that mount infusion pump devices, IV bags, and other medical materials that provides safe ambulation for patients undergoing IV therapy. Various alternatives are described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0156946.
An additional drawback to the IV poles currently used is that they are very difficult to store. Generally, when not in use they are clustered together in a storeroom (or an unused patient room converted to a storage room), or at the end of a hall. This clustering results in a jumble of devices that may be difficult to access when a pole is needed, as well as occupying valuable hospital space that could be better utilized. This is not a simple problem because a typical hospital likely owns hundreds of IV poles.
Even in smaller settings, such as doctors' offices, the presence of only a couple of IV poles can present serious storage issues. The apparatus holders for IMS, IMS units, and related methods provided herein address the need for a safe, stable and reliable infusion management system that addresses the deficiencies identified herein, but also provide compact storage and ready deployment by a single caregiver.